Recently, in a WeChat group, a mother expressed her confusion: Do you think, should you enroll your child in a painting class?

The reason why I ask this is because at a family gathering, this mother's 3-year-old son and her 5-year-old niece were painting together.

My niece’s painting is rich in color and harmonious in composition, covering the entire paper. In the words of this mother, it is “very perfect and pleasing to the eye.”

In comparison Next, my son's drawing is very crude. There is only a stick figure on the drawing paper. Under the round head are the hands and feet represented by a few vertical lines, and there is no hair.

Seeing the huge gap between the two children’s paintings, the mother became anxious, “My niece took a painting class for a year and was able to draw such great works. Should I enroll my child in one too? What? ”

Many mothers will have the same confusion. Especially when people from painting classes come to promote, when we see the works of the children who have taken the class, and then look at the random graffiti of our own children, we will be shaken, "Would it be better to teach our children? Maybe? Can painting become his specialty in the future? ”

However, enrolling your child in a painting class is something that requires special caution. Because we have too many misunderstandings about children's paintings.

If these misunderstandings are not clarified, we will not be able to choose the one that is truly suitable for children in the mixed painting classes, and may even stifle children's creativity and painting expression ability due to wrong teaching methods.

So below, I will sort out 3 common misunderstandings and then share 4 correct guidance methods.

In the previous example, the mother believed that her niece’s good drawing was entirely due to the painting class she had attended for a year. In fact, she ignored the huge age and gender differences between the two children.

Even if my niece has never taken a painting class, her painting will be much better than that of her 3-year-old son. Because children's painting ability, like other abilities, will gradually improve with age, from "unlike" to "more and more like".

According to research by scholars, children aged 0-6 can be divided into three stages of development when drawing representational works.

Children's paintings at this stage are just messy lines in the eyes of adults.

Children will initially draw lines downward, then sweep left and right, and finally appear in controlled spiral lines (drawing circles in circles). This development process is closely related to the child's ability to use opponents.

Not only that, these seemingly meaningless graffiti sometimes contain what the children want to express. For example, the trajectory of a bird flying upward, or the traces of a ball rolling back and forth.

The child may have drawn some lines on the drawing paper by accident. These lines activate their past experiences, as well as images of objects they already have in their minds. So they will point to a few circles and say, "I drew puddings and plates."

Many mothers will find that there will be many mistakes in their children's works during this period. For example, a villain has no body, only a head and feet. This is completely normal and is related to the age characteristics of the child, and there is no need to correct him.

Perhaps in our eyes, painting is just drawing some lines and colors on white paper, but for children, painting is a complex information processing and processing process, and it is a child’s spiritual activity. product.

They must first accumulate perceptual experience in daily life, form an image in their minds, and then look for appropriate elements and features when painting to express the content.

The attention and memory of children aged 2-4 are still very limited. Affected by this, they often lose some important details when drawing, causing "errors" in our eyes, so we cannot Force them to draw correctly and well like adults.

With the improvement of cognition and rich painting experience, children of this age are increasingly able to grasp the basic characteristics of things. In addition, they really hope that others can understand their paintings, so they will draw some images with patterns.

For example, the sun and clouds are used to represent the sky, and the base line is used to represent the ground. I also draw very similar houses, flowers, birds, etc.

By analyzing the developmental stages of children's painting, we can understand why there is such a big gap between the paintings of the mother's son and niece in the group.

This is not just a matter of whether they have attended painting classes, but more importantly, the two children are at different stages of development. It is unrealistic to expect a 3-year-old child to learn some painting skills and be able to draw the paintings of a 5-year-old child.

When we appreciate the works of painters, what we pay attention to is never the resemblance of the paintings, but the connotation that the works want to express. But when we look at children's paintings, we always judge the quality of the paintings by "resemblance".

In fact, painting is the same as language. What matters is not the beauty of the brushstrokes and words, but the process of expression and creation.

The painter Picasso once said, "I could draw like Raphael very early, but it took me a lifetime to learn how to draw like a child."

< p> Children's drawing is an advanced thinking activity and a creative expression. The same is true for drawing a puppy. Because of their different experiences and feelings, children will use different painting elements to express the image of the puppy in their minds.

The painting may not look like it, and the tail may be missing, but it is the creation and expression of a child loyal to his heart.

If we only focus on the results and criticize the children if they don’t draw well, or take a picture book and ask them to draw according to the drawings, as time goes by, the children will only imitate, and they will learn what the adults have not taught them. I can’t draw anything anymore.

This is an approach that puts the cart before the horse. In the long run, it will only cause children to lose their ability to think and express, creating mental inertia.

This is a common wrong practice among many parents, including some painting classes.

In fact, simple drawings are not children's drawings, but a form of painting that adults present after simplifying the image of objects.

Because there is a big difference in thinking between adults and children, simple drawings and real children's drawings are also completely different.

Using simple drawings to teach children to draw will not only obliterate the development of children's creativity, because children do not need to create, they only need to follow the gourd's drawings; it will also hinder children's understanding of the world, thinking and organization The process of experience.

We must understand that it is not important whether the painting is good or not. In the process of painting, we should exercise our thinking, learn to observe, refine and summarize features, and present them creatively. These are the most important things and will affect the children's life. develop.

After clarifying the above three misunderstandings, you may ask, "Should we just let our children completely ignore the matter of painting?"

No. so. Children are the main subjects of painting, which does not mean that we cannot teach anything or do nothing. If we can guide children in a way that is consistent with their development characteristics and provide them with some scaffolding help, it will only be good for the development of children's cognitive abilities, drawing abilities and creativity, and there will be no harm.

Below I will share 4 methods with you to provide some directions for mothers.

Just like when we learn English, being willing to speak is more important than whether we speak it correctly. When a child is drawing, protecting his interest trumps everything else. Only when they are interested can children have the motivation to persevere.

So on the one hand, we must avoid making random comments on children’s paintings. It doesn't look like the painting, it's not right. Don't say these words. We just need to show interest in the child's drawings and be happy to see him draw attentively and happily.

Secondly, we can prepare more painting materials for children and let them draw in different forms. For example, draw with your hands, draw with a sponge, make rubbings with leaves, etc.

Painting with a sponge

This not only broadens the child's horizons and makes him feel that painting is an unfettered and unlimited possibility, but also helps him become familiar with painting. Materials and tools, as well as rich experience, provide him with more inspiration.

Children’s life experience and knowledge reserve are the basis for painting expression. Many children are unwilling to draw because they do not know what to draw because they do not have rich knowledge and experience.

Therefore, before children start painting, we must first take them to do some observation, experience and learning. For example, when spring comes, we can go to the park to observe flowers. See what colors the different flowers are, what shape the petals are, what they smell like, and what they feel like.

You can also watch the process of flowers blooming and withering through picture books and documentaries, and read some stories related to flowers.

When children have a comprehensive perception of flowers and leave a deep impression, they can draw unique flowers on the drawing paper instead of the same flowers in simple drawings.

We often say that painting can cultivate children's imagination and creativity. Because when drawing, children can express freely and present their feelings and thoughts in different ways.

In order to take children's creativity to a higher level, we can use the method of adding paintings to stimulate children's divergent thinking.

To put it simply, give the child a basic shape and let him fill in a few strokes to turn the shape into different things.

For example, if a child is given a circle, he can turn the circle into the sun, biscuits, poached eggs, cars, chickens, etc. based on his own experience and thinking.

I don’t know if you have noticed this phenomenon. Although young children draw very simply, they can tell a lot based on the pictures.

If you add a circle and a black line, your child may happily tell you that this is a child eating a strawberry-flavored cake. The cake is delicious.

If your child is like this and likes to interpret his paintings to you, this is a good sign. Because essentially, painting and language are ways of expressing meaning through symbols.

By talking about their paintings, children are not only practicing using two sets of symbols to express themselves, but they can also sort out the content of the paintings, making the meaning of the paintings clearer and their thoughts deeper. This has a positive effect on the development of children's drawing ability and language ability.

In addition, letting children talk about their paintings can also make us a good audience, better get into the child's heart, and at the same time increase his interest and motivation in painting, and improve his self-confidence. Heart.

Wrong teaching methods of painting can only help children learn to imitate and draw good-looking paintings, but they will pay a huge price in stifling their thinking ability and creativity.

Good teaching methods can open the wings of children's thoughts and allow them to master one more language to express their spiritual world.

I believe that after reading this, you already have the answer to whether to enroll your child in a painting class, and how to choose a qualified painting class. I hope every child can have a childhood of freedom and creativity.